I haven't posted in a while, and certainly not with any FO's (I had the emergency snail project that I had posted in February...). I'm actually wearing my latest FO right now (my first sweater for me!!), but I've been lazy about uploading photos... *shame on me*.
Anywho, I've got a couple of questions I'm hoping y'all can help me out with:
1. Does anyone else have trouble with a Russian Join letting the yarn ends poke out of the stitches? I join the yarn, and then continue knitting. By the time I've done another row or so, the tiny ends that I've woven back through the strand are starting to come unravelled and are poking out of my stitches. I trim it up, but sometimes it does it again; and that's all while I'm still working on it. I'm afraid that now that my sweater is finished, that wearing and washing it will just make it worse... Anyone else run into this with Russian Join?
2. I seem to have the strangest problem with my gauge. In stitches, I'm right on gauge, but in rows, I'm over an inch shorter than I should be. I read a past post where someone suggested using a different needle size to get the row gauge, while trying to maintain the stitch gauge. That didn't work for me. Also, this is one where row count matters because of what happens next. I think I can accommodate for what happens next, so I may just work a few more rows, but I'm wondering if anyone has any technique suggestions for the way I'm knitting that might help me get both row and stitch gauge (I knit continental). PS-this isn't the first time I've had this problem either, it's just the first time where it's really going to matter.
EDIT: The pattern tells me not to block either, so blocking isn't an option to correct the problem...
TIA for your help and suggestions!! :)